What Does 2 Chronicles 16:5 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass, when Baasha heard it, that he left off building of Ramah, and let his work cease.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse doubles the halt: Baasha leaves off building, then causes the work to cease with the same root that grows into the word Sabbath.
THE MEANING
You see stopping in two movements: the builder leaves off, then the labor itself is made to cease. One root family holds this halt together with Sabbath rest, though the verse presents an interruption, not a Sabbath.
THE ROOT
וַיַּשְׁבֵּת
wayyashbet
GROWS FROM
שבת
To cease, stop, or rest; in this causative form, to bring something to a stop.
The KJV’s “let his work cease” is a causative form of שבת, so Baasha brings the stop to the work itself. Sabbath and shabbaton grow from this root too, linking the act of stopping labor with a word for rest.
ALSO GROWS
shabbat: Sabbath; a day set apart from ordinary labor.
שַׁבָּת
The same root names both this stoppage and a recurring day of cessation from work.
shabbaton: A Sabbath rest or solemn cessation.
שַׁבָּתוֹן
This related form carries the root’s sense of stopping into an extended period of rest.
וַיַּחְדַּל
wayyaḥdal
GROWS FROM
חדל
To cease, desist, or leave off.
English renders this as “left off,” but the Hebrew root itself names cessation. In Judges 5:6, the same root describes the highways as having ceased, showing how the word can mark a person’s withdrawal or an activity no longer continuing.
ALSO GROWS
ḥidlû: “Cease” or “leave off,” addressed to a group.
חִדְלוּ
Isaiah 1:16 uses this form for stopping an ongoing action, like Baasha leaving off his building.
ḥādelû ʾorāḥôt: “The highways ceased” or were no longer used.
חָדְלוּ אֳרָחוֹת
Judges 5:6 applies the same root to roads, extending cessation from a person’s action to an activity that has fallen silent.
THE PATTERN
Work can cease as an imposed interruption or as a settled rest.
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.THE THREAD
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.The same root, שבת (shavat), describes Baasha causing his work to cease and God resting from work. The two verses connect a halted project with the root family that also gives the word Sabbath.
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